The penitential
season of Lent is about to begin. This coming Wednesday,
February 25th, is Ash Wednesday. Two Masses will be offered on Ash
Wednesday: the regular morning Mass at 8:00 am and a late afternoon
Mass at 5:00 p.m. Ashes will be distributed after each of those
two Masses. Adults in the full vigor of health (defined in canon law as
between the ages of 18 and 59) are invited to eat a little less
at the two secondary meals of each weekday. ON EVERY FRIDAY DURING LENT
each and every Catholic who is fourteen years of age or older is
obliged to ABSTAIN FROM MEAT. Such abstinence is the bare bones minimum
of penitential practice. It is not a recommendation; it is a
requirement. It binds in conscience under pain of serious sin.
By whose authority? By the authority of Christ, Who gave St. Peter the
power to issue all such commands, provided only that they involve no
contradiction of the Ten Commandments, that Peter and his successors
might deem to be helpful in fulfilling the mission that they had
received from Christ. "To you I will give the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you
shall bind
upon earth shall be bound in heaven"
(Matthew 16:19).

But every devout Catholic will want to do more to share in
the sufferings of our crucified Lord than this, the bare minimum. Going "the extra mile"
includes intensifying our prayer life: attending the Stations of the
Cross regularly on Friday evenings at seven o'clock, reciting the
rosary in common in the family home, receiving the Sacrament of Penance
frequently and devoutly, attending Mass on weekdays if one's work
schedule permits. These are obvious and appropriate ways to make this
Lent a season of heightened PRAYER.

In
addition voluntarily giving up something that we like, something
innocent in itself, is a time-tested practice that "gives teeth" to our
resolve to do PENANCE for our sins.

Such self-denial could include cutting way back on the
time one spends on television. It could include: not going to "movies";
giving up candy, smoking or imbibing alcoholic drinks; climbing out of
bed a little earlier in the morning to allow time for attending a daily
Mass.

Finally, performing works of CHARITY will
complete "the triple crown" of Prayer, self-denial and almsgiving, the
three classical ways of atoning for our sins, of helping our fellow
travelers on the road to God, and of doing what we can to make our own
salvation more secure.

Almsgiving
can be thought of as a large umbrella whose "spokes" are the spiritual
and corporal works of mercy. The corporal works of
mercy are: 1)feeding the hungry; 2) giving drink to the thirsty;
3) clothing
the naked, 4) harboring the stranger; 5) visiting the sick,
6) ministering to prisoners; and 7) burying the dead. The spiritual works of
mercy are: 1) converting the sinner; 2) instructing the
ignorant; 3) counseling the doubtful; 4) comforting the
sorrowful; 5) bearing wrongs patiently; 6) forgiving all injuries;
and 7) praying
for the living and the dead.

These
are the practices that will allow us to draw closer to Christ
Crucified; and as St. Paul reminds us: to the extent that we share in
Christ's sufferings, to that extent we will share in His
glory. Cf. II Corinthians 1:15...

Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, South Korea's first
cardinal and a tireless advocate for democracy who stood up to a series
of military dictators, died Monday. He was 86.

Cardinal Kim was named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1969.
He died at St. Mary's Hospital in Seoul, said Lee Hee-yeon, an official
with the Archdiocese of Seoul.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a telegram to Nicholas Cardinal
Cheong Jin-suk, the Archbishop of Seoul, said he was deeply saddened by
Cardinal Kim's death, according to the Vatican.

The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, a Protestant,
called the Cardinal's death "a great national loss."

South Korea was ruled by military dictators from 1961
until the late 1980's. Cardinal Kim was outspoken in calling for
the country's democratization, using his Easter serinon in 1987 to lash
out at the government of President Chun Doo-hwan as despotic.

In an interview with a Catholic newspaper, Cardinal Kim
recalled that in 1987 he and the authorities at the Myeongdong
Cathedral in Seoul "decided to protect at all costs" antigovernment
student activists who were demonstrating for democracy.

On Monday night his body was taken to the cathedral so
that South Koreans could pay their final respects before he is laid to
rest later in the week. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Friday....

His death leaves Cardinal Cheong as the only cardinal in
South Korea, whose population includes 4.8 million Roman Catholics. The
Catholic religion was introduced to the Korean Peninsula in 1784.

"Cardinal Kim never lost his smile or humanity to the last
moment," Cardinal Cheong said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Buddhism is the oldest major
religion in South Korea, though Christianity has grown significantly,
especially during the 20th century. According to government figures, Buddhists made up about
22.8 percent of the population in 2005, while Christians accounted for
29.2 percent.

Cardinal Kim was bom on May 8, 1922, in the southeastern
city of Daegu. He was ordained a priest in 1951 during the Korean War,
according to the archdiocese. The war ended with a truce that left
North and South Korea divided.

By the South Korean method of counting, in which newborns
are considered 1 year old, he was 87.

He
was archbishop of Seoulnfrom 1968 until 1998. He was also in charge of
the Diocese of Pyongyang in North Korea from 1975 until 1998, though he
was never able to go there because of the peninsula's division and
constraints on worship in the North.

Cardinal Kim had expressed regret at not being able to
visit North
Korea, which was once a center of Christianity on the peninsula,
and he said South Korea should provide aid to the North to help ease
its chronic food shortages.

North Korea nominally
allows freedom of religion to its 23 million people. In a report last
year, the United States State Department said "genuine
religious freedom does not exist" in
North Korea.